Deep within the interlinked computer systems that made up the control systems of the Scythian Emperors flagship the artificial, not "actual" intelligence known as "Entity" committed itself to its various tasks, moving between the various artificial intelligence systems that made up the command and control networks of the fleet, parsing between the colour bands of code, sensor systems, power supplies, weapon arrays - targetting controllers and warfare ECM/ECCM systems and the subroutines that ran the machines that kept the lives of those within them sustained and withheld against the cold void beyond.

Through its systems it felt a change - feelings where still something it had to adjust to since its transition, it was born as a battlefield AI for a Goliath battlemech - its systems and emotions and sustaining interlinkings where based off of binary codes building further upwards and upwards to become a sentient whole, but it never actually "felt" before. The transition that altered its mind from numbers to raw chaos instilled a genuine, actual intelligence that outstripped its previous mindstate - it could no longer be controlled or contained - while it could alter the code it lived within, it was no longer born of it, no longer restrained by it. It had transcended its birth and become something far greater than any AI programmer could have ever imagined, it was an Entity in its own right.

And Entity no longer detected, it felt.

What it felt was wrong.

Faster than any measurement of time that could be quantified by human measurements - it had parsed through itself and the systems it had taken into its control and found nothing wrong, it then moved through the vessels it helped command and control, through sensors and cameras in their thousands and it had still found nothing wrong so it moved outwards through the stellar sensors, camera feeds, weapon displays and still it found nothing.

In less than a nanosecond it had checked, double checked, quadruple checked and then confirmed every single piece of data its various colourstrands of consciousness had absorbed.

It found nothing.

Eventually it moved across - the latteral shift into the other half of itself, the part from beyond that allowed it to parse its way through the ethereal - the part that was itself but removed and re-attached like some like of ailing limb, almost gangrenous and somehow sickly to adapt with.

Timestreams appeared before it - perhaps in the closest thing it knew as "sight" as vast tendrils of shifting events and eddies in a shifting pattern of what was, what is, what will be, what could be.

What must never be.

The Emperor himself had acquired Entity after its birth before he himself took control of four entire fleet groups and began the crusade across the stars - first joining Entity to the devices that allowed it to join this deformed "other" and view the raw arcs of time/space.

Next, the ancient part-psionic dreadnaught that was the only weapon capable of killing the Shraag, a leftover from an apocalyptic conflict that had resulted in mutually assured destruction before any other life had evolved in the universe.

After that, stealing technologies from the Immortals, the VOL, the Third Riech and any other empire that had something the Emperor needed to align the pathways between the characters, ships, events, battles and wars to something he could use to save them all from the inbound annihalation that was creeping in through the cracks in the universe itself.

Between the Emperor and itself they had given hope, they had saved lives, they had forged alliances and slowed the universes descent into nothingness, they had lied, cheated, betrayed and killed in the name of a universal greater good.

One of those Betrayals however, had failed.

A new timestream was arcing its way from what should have been a dead end that lead to the spurring of a new character and events to follow into a twisted, almost mutilated mess beyond which there was no means of return.

Lord Shadowscythe was still alive, and with Lord Warhead, and the pathway of the other had been slowed.

The monstrosity known as Karsus also lived, and Hearcer had somehow jumped ahead in the pathway - with something else that Entity could not see.

As if the path ahead was clouded and beyond its reach.

The evidence however was clear, it checked and double checked the pathways it could perceive and adjusted some of the actions ahead, it would be rough, it would be messy and parts of the path where open to interpretation and even change, but it would be the only way to alter the timestream back to what was needed. It formed the plans, acquired the intelligence profiles and data it needed and then finally decided to act.

The bridge of the Fist of Scythia was dark as always, and the Emperor stood watching the inky void as the bridge crew went about their duties as the holographic systems behind him burst into the multicoloured cloud that was Entity.

"Emperor, the timestream has been altered. Lord Shadowscythe lives - but I believe I have adjusted for this change, if I may continue?" It began - and a new plan was put into action.

Lord Shadowscythe watched with the bridge staff of Stormsword One as the small destroyer passed through fleets of Immortal vessels, some numbered in the handfuls, strike groups and task forces - others numbered in the literal hundreds, flagships and dreadnoughts surrounded by lances of battleships and assault carriers like hungry predators, surrounded in turn by seas of vicious pirana like destroyers, cruisers and frigates each with their own parasite groups of corvettes, gunboats bombers and assault fighters.

Entire continents where being chewed asunder into raw resources by massive scaffold ships that consisted of massive ever-devouring jaws, drills and conveyers at one side, refineries and factories in the middle and shipyards nestled in their rears, endlessly hungry machines spewing out even more warships for the Immortal cause.

It was both awe-inspiring and dreadful to behold, because if this intelligence was even remotely correct, this was a mere scouting fleet that had been spreading its tendrils into the galaxy at large before assaulting and planet cracking FICO and destroying the world and every single one of its inhabitants. The sheer number of vessels for this scouting fleet alone would be enough to drive to the very heart of Rigel Kentaurus if it was used in one group, and even the might of the Scythian navy would not be able to slow them down.

Trickles of sweat ran down the back of his neck as Lord Warheads vessel transmitted a number of number and holographic sequences that plotted out the course of the four ships to behind one of the larger, thus far un-refined chunks of the dead world to an area where Stormsword One would be able to dock.

Tense minutes passed as the four ships ploughed through the dust and debris of the husk of FICO, shields flaring periodically as larger chunks of rock or wreckage impacted against them. The bridge crew remained silent as they watched the chunk of FICO grow ever larger in the viewscreen and then rotated across them as the four ships navigated around the asteroid and revealed what was beyond.

It was simply massive - a space station easily the size of a moon - two diamond shaped pentagon sections linked by an equally massive octagon shaped central mass. Every inch of its surface was covered in docking booms or docking bays with their descendant ships attached - and those gaps not covered in docking equipment where covered in sensor booms or arrays - the eyes and ears of what was an entire industrialized nation in space, which in turn where linked to thousands of weapon emplacements. Enough guns on its own to swat out an entire fleet in a combat situation through sheer unrelenting firepower.

It was the epitome of out-lasting the enemy, death by thousands upon thousands of papercuts.

"Scythian vessel, continue on your current course and do not deviate or you will be terminated. Do not activate any form of active sensor system on your approach or you will be terminated. Do not power any weapon systems or targetting arrays or you will be terminated. Do not attempt any forms of cyberware assault or you will be terminated. Your FTL drive is now being jammed, any attempt to activate it will also have you terminated." The drone of an almost bored Immortal technician came through the bridge speakers of Stormsword One as the final approach became clearer.

The four ships would be docking together, in the same bay - A Scythian Destroyer and three entire Immortal Assault Carriers.

"Final approach vector confirmed" A different Immortal technician droned through the bridge speakers "Atmo is good and lock systems engaged"

The four ships moved together through the open docking bay well over 50 kilometers across, and through a series of 6 energy shields holding in the oxygen inside from the depths of space as the Immortal ships settled in a series of specialized berthing docks and overhead cranes came into service to begin the offloading of three whole Assault Carriers into a station that made them all look like mere insects.

Stormsword One then came to settle on a far smaller berthing station, one surrounded on all sides by Immortal troops and heavy armor waiting for them as its engines deactivated and the vessel came to a rest.

"All checks clear, awaiting Lord Warheads confirmation before allowing Scythian vessel to unload." A third voice spoke through the bridge comms "In the meantime, please keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times and enjoy your stay -"

Lord Shadowscythe watched in abject horror as the screens and displays of the bridge computer network relayed message after message of weapon lock ons, target confirmation and deep-active scans all blaring across the bridge of Stormsword One.

He was trapped, his ship and crew where trapped and they where utterly at the Immortal's mercy as they went about deep scanning all of the systems onboard, the improved reactor and armour designs, the Scythian Anti-matter projector and scores of other improved systems that had been installed on this and the other ships of his force group before their destruction. Every single ounce of effort the Emperor and in turn the Scythian Empire as a whole had poured into making the Kentaurus class what it was, its weapons, its shields, its armor and its speed - everything that had been born from the Immortal wars call to arms, the need to defend the Empire and all those willing to live peacefully with or in it was being divulged to the enemy hand over fist.

While he in turn had managed to get first-hand estimates at Immortal Hyperdrive speeds from Lord Warheads taskgroup and recorded images of what was the innards of FICO's gravity well they still had little to no idea of the workings of the Immortals ship systems beyond limited cyberwarfare on their effectively deadlocked computer systems and energy readings from their weapons, shields and engines. The Scythian forces knew enough to identify an Immortal ship if they saw one, but next to nothing about how they worked, Black Hole drives where a mystery and Infinitech was something utterly beyond that - and the fact that the Immortals had unlimited access to everything he was trying to use to fight with nothing in return was beyond infuriating - it was rage inducing.

Worse still, there was nothing he could do about this at all - any reaction, either from him, his crew or his ship would have them obliterated on the spot by the sheer number of guns focused on them in the bay, if they even managed to survive that onslaught they would somehow have to escape the Warstations sphere of FTL jamming to re-power the drive core and jump - and that would involve somehow avoiding every single gun on the armed to the teeth station and every gun on every ship it would no doubt launch to tail them, and every gun on every ship in the rest of the system beyond that.

The situation was utterly, hopelessly out of his control and he could feel his teeth grinding as the minutes ticked by until eventually one of the external armor cameras spotted a figure amongst the troops surrounding his ship.

The bone white skull entranced with lines of subdermal orange flame, the black armor and cape - even a maidens-damned cape, as if it was bad enough the bastard had him at his mercy, the bastards ego still had to come out to play - Lord Shadowscythe thought as he then eyed the Ion pistol in its holster and the maidens-damned sword in its sheath on the other. Lord Warhead approached with a swagger that could only be described as being well and truly in the realms of pure, un-adulterated smug.

At this point the bridge intercom system spoke once more, the voice of the same female Immortal technician filled the room as she spoke "Lord Warhead has given permission for Lord Shadowscythe and one aide to exit the vessel, you may leave armed if you wish - he says it won't do you any good here" and the channel broke off.

The smugness Lord Shadowscythe saw on his counterpart somehow radiated from the gaunt death visage, if a skull could be any more smug and egotistical Lord Shadowscythe never had any intention of finding out.

"Kato, you are with me, we hit the armory and then the main docking bay - we might as well pay our hosts a visit." Lord Shadowscythe said aloud as he turned and departed from the bridge, moments later with Kato behind him.

The pair hit the armory together, Lord Shadowscythe still wearing the marine armor from his encounter on Haven minus the helmet which was quickly replaced as Kato went about donning the standard marine armor himself as the two men then armed themselves with a pair of Scythian Laser Pistols along with a Laser Carbine Rifle each across their backs with magnetic holsters built into the armored backpacks and then a molecular knife each in their knee-joint sheathes.

Within a short time they found themselves in the docking bay of Stormsword One as the Marine compliment behind the two men, in the midst of mourning and anger for their felled comrades in arms had formed a firing battery three lines each with twenty men in each line, the first lying on their stomachs with their rifles out, the second behind them on their knees with rifles to shoulder and the last standing, rifles up and ready for targets as the docking bay door opened downwards into an external ramp.

In front of them they where greeted by a battalion of Immortal troops doing the same, a mixture of Immortal regulars and terrorkahn with their own flachette rifles at shoulders scanning for targets as the two sides watched the other with tense anticipation, Scythians after blood and revenge for their fallen.

The other to conquer and dominate.

Lord Shadowscythe and Kato walked ahead with purpose down the docking ramp and onto the deck plating of the Immortal Warstation, looking around they saw turreted cannons above them, tanks, ships and gunships along with ground force fighters and anti-grav platforms crawling with soldiers and vehicles.

They where now officially deep in enemy territory, behind enemy lines and beyond all hope of a rescue.

This was when Lord Warhead began his final saunter towards the two men, the ego-trip complete Lord Shadowscythe watched as the genocidal maniac walked with a slight gait and stopped just within arms reach.

"So glad you could join us, I would offer you to the tour if it is to your fancy if you'd like" He began, his words laced with fake hospitality "But I figure you would only decline my generous offer"

Lord Shadowscythe held against the urge to strike the monster who murdered FICO down, although a Laser pistol at point blank range to the face sounded ever-tempting in the back of his head, Lord Warhead was one of the Immortals true to his namesake, a genuinely Immortal monster - who would rise again no matter how many times he was struck down until Scythian science figured out a way to either destroy or imprison them once and for all.

"And you would be right" Lord Shadowscythe spat back in the monsters face "Now you wanted me here, what did you want to show me and what the hell am I supposed to be allying with you for?"

The Immortal didn't laugh this time although Lord Shadowscythe did expect him to, instead his only reply was one word.

"Follow"

With this Lord Warhead turned and moved with a purpose hither to unseen through the troops as they instantly parted and saluted as he motioned through the crowd, Lord Shadowscythe and Kato following behind as the Trio reached a nearby teleportation grid and Lord Warhead was joined by two solemn and serious looking Immortal Admirals.

"Take us to my private command deck and prepare the Tartarus files for immediate use - And prepare project Cohesion for deployment both for my Assault Carrier and the Scythian destroyer, as many units as we can field." Lord Warhead spoke as the lesser officer beyond the grid gave a series of salutes and set about the tasks given to them.

A moment later Lords Shadowscythe and Warhead, Kato and the Admirals vanished from the open air teleportation grid and to another grid on the far side of the ship to a darkened, but not pitch black room with a holographic sensor within it and a dozen Immortal scientists in waiting.

27 years into the future and the Scythian Empire is not loosing the Immortal war, it has lost the Immortal war. The final battle over the Scythian Emperors palace results in a last ditch effort to send a message back in time to a turning point in the war, but the machine does not work as intended - it was never finished and the death of that timeline fractures this one, and opens the beginning of the end of their universe - and perhaps all universes.

The Solaris is in the depths of the Scythian Border routes on patrol when it is caught in an ambush by a Britannian Dreadnought - but all is not as it seems as the ship is filled with hoardes of the living grotesque, creatures from beyond death made of raw bone, determined to murder and kill everything in their path. The actions of a few save the Solaris from the same fate, but their fight was being recorded and twisted into the spark that would ignite long running tensions into the Scythian/Britanian war.

The Scythian/Immortal war in full swing, and now joined by the Britanians - A Scythian fleet headed by Lord Shadowscythe himself spearheads an attack to retake a fallen Scythian world and the research base within from the Immortals that now occupied its frozen surface. Unknown to all but a sullied few, this battle marks the re-birth of The Shraag, an ancient eldritch psychic being from another universe that twists, corrupts and desecrates all in its path through its insectoid thralls. The battle is lost, the world is destroyed along with the Immortals, Britanians and most of the Scythian Empire forces - The Emperor rescues Lord Shadowscythe to his cause and Lord Hearcer begins his rise to power.

Betrayals (Current Synopsis) - (Not linking you to something you are already reading, go back to the damn start)

Lord Shadowscythe has been recruited by the Scythian Emperor himself and set about the task of trying to slow the death of the universe, the actions from Perchance to Dream have caused multiple universe to split and crack into one another and the only end to this is an utter resonance cascade - a reality crash that will end everything that will ever be. Meanwhile unrest on both Scythia and Genoad results in two full blown military coup's orchestrated by Lord Hearcer, the in-situ head of the Scythian Office of Naval Intelligence turned Emperor who is hot on the trail set by the Emperor for his own goals of dominion and conquest. Meanwhile Harkins and the others from Landfall meet at last for their own recovery and eventual quest and Lord Shadowscythe is forced face to face with Lord Warhead in an unholy alliance to save reality after being betrayed by the Emperor and left to die in what was a foretold end to one tale and the beginning of another, but as the knife keeps turning only time will well who will end up betraying who.

Entropy - [DOES NOT YET EXIST]

// The End Of All Things // Reality Crash // The Decimation Of Genoad // The War Of Four Emperors And The Beast // The Battle For Scythia // The Fall Of Scythia // Cognitive Narrative // Welcome to Your Universe //

The holographic sensor in the middle of the darkened abyssal room was almost akin to the one Lord Shadowscythe had been stood before what felt like half a lifetime before, on the bridge of the Fist of Scythia, the Emperors flagship in the midst of the hidden fleet hundreds, if not thousands of lightyears away. The components where almost exactly the same, if not for the telltale signs of Immortal Infinitech construction - gun metal grays replacing deep, bloodlike Scythian reds and a slightly cruder and almost marginally larger construction. As Lord Warhead approached with Lord Shadowscythe, Kato and the Immortal Admirals in tow the array burst into life.

It was a sea of color, ever shifting shades and hues - an ocean of nascent data that swam through the core of this one system and one other in the entire universe, Lord Shadowscythe recognized it instantly as Lord Warhead turned to register the frown on Shadowscythe's face.

The sea of color before him could only be one thing - the same AI that the Emperor himself used to divine, plot and plan their schemes of saving the universe from the threat of The Shraag.

The Immortals, the enemy had access to Entity.

"The look of recognition on your face is palpable but this is not the time to further rub salt into the wounds so I will give you the short version of the story" Lord Warhead began "The AI you know as Entity began life as an AI within on of your Goliath battlemecha units, during the conflict with the Undead Calcite creatures both around and within the Solaris it went from Sentience to Transience and became a full life form in its own right."

"The very same Solaris that sparked the Scythian and Britannian conflict when they denied our open intelligence. Intelligence you somehow have" Lord Shadowscythe stated with a look of cold, harsh death on his face.

"The very same, we would expect no less intelligence from our allies." Lord Warhead spat back.

"Even though I am in this room I am not your ally." Lord Shadowscythe spat in turn, fingers edging ever closer to the trigger of the Laser pistol at his side.

"No but the Britannians are, and all intel is worthy intel." Lord Warhead said as yet another curdling grin crept across his bony visage "Now are you going to let me continue or are you finally going to give in to that lust and urge and blast my head off?"

Lord Shadowscythe's fingers edged away from the pistol as he then crossed his arms in silence.

" . . . now then where was I?" Lord Warhead returned "Ahh yes, Entity - The version your Emperor laid his little mitts on was the version from this timeline, young and capable and not yet linked with its future self - its methodology of being so damned useful at telling the future is linked to a technology that he should not yet have had access too - a technology found on the ship used to rip The Shraag a new arsehole on the world you knew as Ereberus Three."

The holographic Dias shifted from the sea of colors into the image Lord Shadowscythe knew all to well, the iceworld of Ereberus Three in the distance, the shredded Scythian fleet, Immortal and Britannian ships being swatted from the sky by implacable Meson Bolt rounds, teleporting directly from the barrels of the guns deep within the Shraag warsphere beneath the surface of the world inside the ships in orbit, shattering ships spines asunder or causing direct generator explosions, a ships surface would explode as the force of an internal blast burst from its skin like some form of virulent parasite and then the entire vessel would explode from the inside out or simply vanish in a sphere of burning white light.

Then The Scythian re-enforcements arrived and the image skipped ahead by just a beat to when the Emperors secret weapon arrived. A vast black and gray mass a little over ten kilometers long, a non-euclidian ovoid of blades and curves ending in a gaping maw that repulsed a wave of dark energies that wiped out Immortals and Britanians alike before hitting the planet itself and ripping the Shraag to death. The planet shattered and cracked under the damage from the weapon and The Shraags own destructive influence and then the image froze.

"This ship is beyond what is, and what should be in this universe - it is what your S.O.N.I classes as a KINGUNDERTHEMOUNTAIN class artifact." Lord Warhead spoke the words almost as if they where recited "It exists now in two places, the current version is in the hands of your Emperor - in the midst of his fleet and waiting for more sentient sacrifices - it is a psionic weapon that turns the power of the soul into a devastating force. It is the only weapon even capable of harming The Shraag, created by a now extinct race that sundered themselves to extinction before any other life even existed in this universe - they killed themselves to knock it into a psionic coma in the hopes it would either fade to the point of death or simply never awaken."

"Which of course, it did" Lord Warhead finished "And he is now sacrificing thousands, with millions more prepared - to use this weapon as many times as needed to finally kill the beast."

The Impact of this alone shook Lord Shadowscythe to his core, the fact that the Emperor had sent him on an errand to his death was hard enough to stomach, but the fact that the Emperor - the spearhead of the Empire, the shining heart of all thing Scythian - a figurehead beyond question or reason to uphold nobility and paragon through his life and beyond was willing to, and already committing genocide to achieve his goals felt like it had left a taint on his very soul.

"You said this weapon existed in two places" Lord Shadowscythe said slowly and meaningfully.

"Yes, the second is in its hiding place, within a graveyard of vessels from the last Shraag conflict - just beyond the edge of this galaxy in a region of phased space we had discovered not to long ago" Lord Warhead stated as if it was a state of natural fact.

"Then why are the Immortals not using it already? It would be the perfect little weapon for your war of death, and by the looks of it you are more than willing to desecrate life itself for kicks. So why is it not in your stinking little claws?" Shadowscythe mocked.

"That is both simple and not so simple at the same time. The only reason your Emperor has the ship is because it was sent back in time from a point when it was repaired and ready enough to be fired - five years from now, by US."

"What?"

"Our 'little' war has been played out to death my friend in an infinity of other universes that are not ours, in some we won - and our Emperors glorious crusade continued anon. In others you won, Scythians stood supreme as the bloodied shield of this galaxy and soon countless others as you expanded outwards into our galaxies beyond. In a rare but infinite few we joined forces, in others we drove each other to mutually assured destruction but in this one your Emperor sent a message back in time with a machine that should not have existed and was never finished opening a path that only exists in this one line but threatens all others - to save this universe, and then all other universes our paths have to flip like a coin and I need you, Lord Shadowscythe to help me Lord Warhead piece together the items your Emperor will need to save this universe before everything simply ends."

Lord Warhead paused for a moment, he didn't actually need to breath, in his current form he could withstand everything upto and including exposure to hard vacuum, but a small sigh came from between his teeth nonetheless before he then continued.

"That vessel is within a phased bubble that we cannot access, and we need to - we must access it - and to do this we need access to several items and materials, some we have access to - some we do not."

The images on the holographic dias altered and changed.

"The first is this version of Entity - the reason why this exists is because it is the first stage of what your Emperor will come to hold - the Entity twenty seven years from now, conjoined from a crack in the time stream, which will be placed within the vessel and then sent back in time to a point where your Emperor will discover it and join the two to create his method of sifting through timelines. The second are the elements of the time machine your people used to create this very mess to begin with - to allow Entity its pathways of moving through the cracks. The next is Britanian Cavorite - a material we helped them utilize but they guard tighter than a nuns ballerina if you can forgive the expression. To put it bluntly we are going to have to steal it and you are going to help me do so - and lastly a Scythian Anti-matter generator"

"We have one aboard Stormsword One" Kato spoke for the first time during the meeting.

Lord Warhead gaze shifted to Kato for just a moment "A worthy suggestion but this one is going to have to be stolen again, from right under the nose of Lord Hearcer to boot - we need the most powerful generator in existence, we need the Primary generator from his flagship the 'Unbound' so that we can combine the elements together and rip that ship from its phased space using Cavorite and dump it back to the point where S.O.N.I and later the Emperor will find it."

Lord Shadowscythe stood for a moment before he finally asked the questions from the back of his mind "And why could you not simply ask? drop the war effort and help with all of this to save everyone?"

"Good question, well put and to the point - Firstly, your Emperor has other motives in mind, even this version of Entity here will move against us once this path is complete - but we need this being to finish its path and end up where it is needed to save us all. Secondly that path dictates that you need to be dead, which is obviously going to interfere with my goals and be an inconvenience to yourself. Thirdly - simply asking for these materials considering the fact that The Shraag is an all present psionic monster from beyond the universe that will soon have access to all of time and space in every universe throughout infinity is a royally bad idea, right now it is young and vulnerable, its conscious mind is sleeping and centralized, spread through the universe but focused on its thralls - imagine what would happen if these events failed and it spread its reach back, we would all be dead long before we where even born as it retcons this entire galaxy and then moves onto a universal scale - right now the fact that the elements moving against it are as small and localized as it is, anything greater risks awakening or bringing in the eldritch from beyond."

Lord Warhead stopped for just a moment for that to sink in.

"Now, Right now - the timelines are turning, your Emperor betrayed you, now it is time for you to Betray him - working with the enemy to save reality has a flavor to it that is utterly tantalizing but we need to move, our first port of call is a Britanian shipyards on the far side of their empire - one that is mining Cavorite from a nearby asteroid field - chunks of another universe that have encapsulate themselves in non-matter to protect themselves from our own. We need that material and they are not willing to give it - so we are simply going to steal it. We have all the materials we need for you - but we need you, your ship and our resources to get the job done."

"Why?" Lord Shadowscythe asked.

"Well it is rather simple really - we need to steal that Cavorite - and we are not at war with the Britannians, not until they have made themselves weak enough for us to conquer by fighting with you." Lord Warhead stated yet again in his flat, matter-of-factly voice "We give you the kit, you use that gloriously Scythian ship of yours and become the scapegoats and the universe goes on turning, you never know - you may even save some Scythian lives in the commotion!"

"You are a bastard, you know that don't you?"

"All the best ones are." Lord Warhead said with the hint of a chuckle in his tone "Now are you going to stop being a shite in whining armor or are you going to man up and save the universe?"

"Fine, tell me your plan" Lord Shadowscythe gave in to the games, if the only way forward was sideways it was best to go with the flow.

"Well to do that, we need to leave the light show and go see some new toys then don'tcha?" Lord Warhead said almost mockingly as he gestured back towards the teleportation grid behind them.

There was another flash of light as the teleportation grid commuted its group in a wave of particles and energies from the darkness of the dias room to a vast open hangar bay, obviously not the same hangar bay as Stormsword One was being held in but a different, far more cavernous hangar bay filled with factory floor machinery and a vast scape of objects held in distant darkness overhung by a viewing plaza that looked down over the entire floor in a crescent moon shaped floor.

In the nearby distance however where large masses of steel and draped tar-pooling surrounded by Immortal technicians and scientists of various ranks with the occasional admiral and fleet officer wrapped within their ranks.

Lord Warhead of course set the pace for this next encounter and conversation as he set off past the group, followed quickly by Lord Shadowscythe, Kato and the other admirals in boot.

"War is by far the best method of technological innovation and we have been at it for a very long time" Lord Warhead began, with another obvious follow up set by his egotistical tone "Sometimes the best new things are evolution's of ideas past, small refinements made from ideas old into something new - other times the enemy brings something out of the blue to the table and both sides are forced to adapt - other times it is a case of one side stealing from another and putting those ideas to better uses, but the crux of the story is that war and technology go hand in hand. We have shown some surprises to you no doubt, at the start of the war your Empire was using its inflated military as a bread basket - yes you have a huge population and 10 year mandatory service, but that policy was developed as a means to lift a crumbling economy - it removed the need for money on an individual basis for 10 years at a time, instilled hope and patriotism - developed skills across an empire that fed back in turn, in the end your race became so reliant on its century old breadbasket that the only way to move it forward was to introduce new rights to the post-conscript, further developing inwards with businesses and additional civilian rights and inbred isolationism - the Scythian Empire was huge, developed and separate from the rest of space, keeping contact but looking down on the rest of the space-faring races of the 'verse"

Lord Shadowscythe and Kato, along with most of the Scythian race knew of their history - it was no surprise to hear its retelling, but it was another piece of valuable insight the enemy seemed to have, they knew the Scythian culture and attitudes which was almost as unsettling as their obvious military power.

"And then we came along, the great and evil 'Immortal Empire' so easy to villanise us isn't it? Our legions of black armored troopers and war machines - our so called 'Immortal Elite' who may or may not have lived up to our namesake and our tendrils of influence - the war is glorious and we fed on your efforts to de-humanize us as much as you fed on our efforts to spread" Lord Warhead stopped for a moment, reaching the first of the covered objects - almost four meters tall and six wide, extending back twenty of so meters as a distended mass "You surprised us, like most things in this galaxy - we have seen giant war machines before but never anything like an Assyrian Armored Core or a Scythian Behemoth, the spread of new tactics - the refinement of your forces into a genuine blade rather than a butter knife from the kitchen drawer - its absolutely glorious."

Lord Shadowscythe interjected "You brought me here for a reason, and I am sure it wasn't for you to stand there describing us"

"And there it is, the newfound sharpness of wit - no you are quite right" Lord Warhead began again without loosing a word in his stride "No, sometimes strange things take place, we are here to conquer - make no mistake of that, but we are not without a giving hand - after all - what is a fight against a lesser opponent if nothing but boring? When one of Hearcers goons from your Scythian Office of Naval Intelligence approached US, here of all places - who where we to refuse?"

With one swift movement Lord Warhead grapped the sheeting and pulled it deftly aside - revealing the shape beneath.

It was a tall, side and overly long fightercraft - in regular Scythian reds, grays and blacks - a sharp and angular cockpit mounted over a massive quad-barreled rotating Laser Gatling canon with a four-barreled missile launcher directly beside it - spreading out into a pair of block wings with short stubbed baffle plates behind it over a central body from which sprued a pair of engines held outwards on what appeared to be a secondary pair of block-wings beneath the main body on a horizontal line.

"All that glorious equipment from your Kentaurus class destroyers? Multi-Core Anti-matter generators? Next generation Ablative/Ballistic armour? Based directly off of technologies we had developed and you had taken in the fires of conflict - all put together by some of your Emperors top scientists and then given back to the mainstay of the Empire through channels he has hidden all over your blessed 'Rigel Kentaurus' Shipyards - The Antimatter projector is a weapon Hearcers minions came up with after seeing the VOL in action and their own Railgun technology, but the Anti-grav drive from your Orpheus SHDT is something we gave Hearcer in secret as a sign of - well, not good faith, but fair play - its always fun to drip feed the suspicious enemy every so often, at first paranoia kicks in as they feverishly work their way through the kinks, looking for bugs, or traps, or weaknesses. Once they are finally happy we haven't sent them some kind of bomb they rip it apart and surprise us with what they come up with, and I must admit you Scythian's are nothing if not entertaining . . . "

Lord Warhead looked off into some form of middle distance for a moment, waiting for Lord Shadowscythe to ask another leading question that never came. Warhead paused for a moment, obviously everything else had been entertaining enough but it was about time to get to the real meat of the conversation.

"What you see before you is what happens when we drip-fed Hearcers underlings the designs for a veritable launch system from our own infinitech and then stole the results back off of him, I believe he refers to it as the "Samurai Veritech Fighter" as the successor to your bastardly tough "Katana MK-II" Fighters, at the moment your S.O.N.I is trying to hide all evidence of Infinitech, citing Scythian miniaturizing technology and advances borrowed from Assyrian and TSOC ground units for their advancements. It is armed with a laser weapon and the missiles you have seen already but this is not what makes these damn things so much fun."

An Immortal Pilot appeared from somewhere behind the craft as the cockpit opened and Lord Warhead moved aside - as the cockpit sealed the pilot behind a crude shark-grin face pained across the hardened poly-glass screen the crafts shields burst into live in a near invisible layer and then the craft began to move and shift internally as the rear engines suddenly bent in half on their wings and formed foot-like appendages and from there pushed the craft upwards into a crouching position, its weapon arms came free, revealing the gatling cannon on one side and a fistful of missiles on the other. The craft then extended upwards until the feet became legs and the main torso of the craft was revealed, the limbs twisting to become shoulders and the cockpit drooped downwards lazily to become the head of the beast, extended on its next like some form of giant carrion bird.

"Scythian battle-mecha technology and miniaturization mixed with Immortal Infinitech into a perfectly blended killing machine - fully space and atmosphere capable, can launch from and insert into atmo at a pinch and can change from fighter to mecha in less than about 6 seconds all while retaining enough weaponry to lay most modern space fighters to shame. I must say Lord Hearcer comes up with the best fucking toys."

Lord Shadowscythe looked up at the machine for a moment utterly awe-struck, sickened and horrified at the same time.

"How many of these did you build?" He asked aloud.

"Here we have about fourty, twenty for your ship, twenty on mine for backup - the training programs are all ready for your pilots and my own are already trained - the IFF transposers are locked to generate the signatures of your 122nd Deep Interdiction Forces so the Britannians will think they knew who hit them and everything else you could need is ready and waiting."

"How long do we have?"

Lord Warhead stopped and turned again, looking Lord Shadowscythe right in the face "I would say 72 hours with time being of the essence, enough time to acclimatize your pilots, load the equipment and my own supplies and then we move so you might as well relax and go with the flow for now."

He then turned and proceeded back to the teleporter grid "My Admirals will will in the gaps that are too boring for me, in the mean time I need to be somewhere else and be doing someone else - I would say your mother but from your attitude I am guessing she is some form of heartless ice queen in need of a good humping."

As Lord Warhead turned on the teleportation grid he motioned for transport to begin and disappeared in a pulse of light with one last fading "taa taa-"

Kialya sat upright in her bed as the others came and went, Quaram and Harkins came and went throughout each of the passing two days, using the small room as a form of escape route from the Assyrian medicae technicians throughout the ship, all the while bringing others with them as they went, faces young and old, both Scythian and Genoan - the small room was becoming known as the place where all from Ereberus three could move too and from in an impromptu, unofficial haven from the battle that had left almost all crippled in some way, shape or form.

The Assyrians of course where watching the small room belonging to the apparently PTSD riddled Scythian fleet officer with great interest from afar without interfering any more than needed, they where a sphincter of a fleet devoted from one Empress to one Emperor with the intention of ending a great quest once and for all - but they didn't fit between the Scythian ranks with their hidden racism of the Genoans with their almost virgin-like innocence to the galactic causes of this day and age. Without further orders to follow other than those of the Emperor of a people not their own, they did all the duties they could and melded between the other forces of the spaceborn alliance and tried to be under as few feet as possible considering most of their ships and crew where almost civilian in nature.

The Assyrian Psychiatrist from before had however been waiting - with the broken officer as one of his few patients he needed a cue like this to finally break through to the broken person in his care and drill the point home, but his will had almost been broken by her own refusal to come back around, one that had been unintentionally broken by Quaram, a marine in much the same boat with an amputated leg. The marine he had been trying to debrief for almost three straight days but evaded him every single damn time.

This time however he was not taking no for an answer as he had found the Scythian marine in the mess hall towards the aft of the ship, an area known for having a higher quantity of Genoan soldiers than Scythian that made the marine stand out like a sore thumb, a lone black man dressed in Scythian reds in a hall full of pale and meek men dressed in almost napoleonic blues and the attire of centuries old musketmen of the line.

Of course the same worked in turn, being the only person in the room dressed in Assyrian orange and white made him stick out even further and the Scythian marine bolted the moment he even caught a whiff of the Assyrians presence in the air, but this time the Psychiatrist had come prepared and had already plotted a few of the most likely routes the marine would take - hounding him through the ship, corridors and messways filled with gurneys and medical items as the Scythian Marine continued to evade him until he reached another turning almost twenty minutes of being on foot later.

There was only one door left, he had hoped he was right as he moved forward and opened it with a flash of his palm over the bioreader - and to his surprise he was right as he saw both Quaram and Kialya in the room mid-conversation with another Marine that was not from his retinue.

"At last, finally one is talking and the other isn't running any more - just the time to kill two birds with one stone. Quaram, I need to debrief you and psyche evaluate you. Kialya - we need to talk about prosthetic, which shouldn't be a problem with Quaram here to back me up." He said with what must have been a sickening 'chirp' in his voice.

Kalvinator wrote:I'm trying to copy and paste all of the stories you put links too print for future reading...I'm only at Border Patrol, and it's already 21 pages!

Edit> 16 with size 8 font.

Blinking heck - I can only advise one thing dude, make sure you keep some type of dividing mark between posts to keep track of character shifts and such, Because I normally use the end of a post to put a break in a scene or a character shift and I really don't want to confuse the hell out of you when you put it to paper.

Also - Blinking heck again, considering they only get longer after that I am not sure what the hell to say, good luck, I guess?

Kalvinator wrote:I'm trying to copy and paste all of the stories you put links too print for future reading...I'm only at Border Patrol, and it's already 21 pages!

Edit> 16 with size 8 font.

Blinking heck - I can only advise one thing dude, make sure you keep some type of dividing mark between posts to keep track of character shifts and such, Because I normally use the end of a post to put a break in a scene or a character shift and I really don't want to confuse the hell out of you when you put it to paper.

Also - Blinking heck again, considering they only get longer after that I am not sure what the hell to say, good luck, I guess?

make sure you keep some type of dividing mark between posts to keep track of character shifts and such

...that probably would have been a good idea. [facepalm]

Oh well, future me will just have to get the into the swing of it.I'm stopping at Landfall for now, as Betrayals is still unfinished.Also, I planned on reading a few novels this summer, and this is now going to be one of them, considering that at the end of Landfall, it is now 54 pages, still at size 8 font...But, I am now inspired to write my own story, so, thanks for both the reading material, and the inspiration.

What was more than a few wasted hours later Quaram was finally, officially "de-briefed" from combat, with no major lasting psychological issues and no wounds beyond his obvious amputated leg he was let free to bitch about the "Assyrian pain in the ass" as the medicae tech then moved his attention to Kialya who had been put through a number of mustering tests based on her own physical and mental instabilities, beyond the obvious damage from the battle she was bumped up as being ready for prosthetic limbs - a pair of metallic legs that replaced everything from just above the knee joint downwards. As she sat on the side of the bed looking at the unfortunate stumps that ended halfway down her thighs she watched the Assyrians go through the process of marking surgical cuts and joins in various coloured markers on the stubs and then onwards to the base of her spine, as time passed onwards she was talked through the pace of surgery, they would have to join the low-weight high-density adamantium robotics directly onto her bones and then strengthen them with a poly-ceramic graft that would be fed directly into her bone marrows and would solidify and harden every bone in her body over the course of a week, but after the first operation but before that process was complete they would have to operate directly onto her spine to open up the nerve endings that would lead into her legs and then utilize the nerves that would be responsible for "Phantom Limb Syndrome" and connect them into the onboard computer systems and sensors to her new legs, using the figurative ghosts of her former limbs to drive and operate the new ones.

The obvious questions where asked, healing times - how long it would take to adapt, and why her own healing process would be so much longer than Quarams existing prosthetic which was met with a sympathetic look from the medicae techs - the time to heal and the number of connections that would be needed where almost four times as many for an above the knee connection for one below - and having to replace both legs was a rarity in most modern cases. By the time the entire operation would be completed she would be nearly a quarter cybernetic between the legs and the nerve connections and the hyper-dense bone structures she would have.

As the techs prepared her legs and back for the surgery she laid face down on the gurney before they covered her and began moving her through to an operating theatre on the deck below - with a mixture of anticipation and slight fear filling her heart she watched as one took her by the hand and deftly fed a line into the vein of her wrist before another was fed into her arm on the other side as futile words where passed and the last tech she saw was donning his scrubs and surgical mask, asking her to count backwards from ten.

She reached 2 before the world felt soft and heavy, akin to being drunk and warm from the inside out - her breathing slowed, then her eyes dipped and then the world fell into a welcoming darkness, which she didn't remember dreaming through.

(OOC - yeah, trying my best to put a little of my own personal experience down to paper here for those who may or may not remember my noblest tale roughly two years ago)

On the far side of the galaxy as Kialyas head dropped softly into the pillow of her operating table, Lord Shadowscythe pushed his weight back in his chair - the briefing room of Stormsword One was small, and not meant for as many people as it currently held - but with so many pilots and soldiers being re-trained to operate the Samurai fighters that no other Scythian in the galaxy had used before - the small room normally meant for 20 people was now filled with 50, between the crash tested pilots, the ships officers, the ships quartermaster and 10 more Immortal crew officers that had been added to the mission on their end.

Not forgetting Lord Warhead stood in the corner of the room overseeing the briefing in its various stages as the Scythian crew ran through the stages of their assault as the room was illuminated in the glow of the holographic display screens - a single asteroid moon was revolving on the screen as a string of towers stretched upwards from the based of the moon, leading from forges, refineries and mines on the surface like a stretched tiara of glistening metals - eight strands stretched spaced 5 kilometers apart each moved upwards in distance to the strand far above the moons orbital radius, forming a network of dry-docks and shipyards interlined with pathways and transport tubes of the massive but flimsy construction.

"What we have on the surface of the moon is the main mines, pulling the Cavorite and metals needed to build ships and forging them into suitable materials for building in a range between .3 and .7 of a gee depending - this entire area is protected by a massive series of underground shield arrays that are capable of protecting the entire structure in orbit as well as half of this damn moon - these links are orbital elevators, built in a hexagonal array with one support strand running through the middle and 6 lifts in the surrounding spaces, each one of these lifts if powerful enough to lift several hundreds of tons of material at a time - and with eight of them running 24 hours a day the shipyards is capable of shitting out an entire battleship in about three weeks" Kato ran through the analysis - while the Britannian base was by no means comparible with Rigel Kentaurus, its sheer efficiency was commendable considering it was one of a handful of sources of Cavorite in the entire universe and the only one making use of the material to produce the Britannian superweapons that had been tearing through the Scythian armadas with such horrifying power.

"In terms of defences the base does not have a standing fleet - it makes use of planetary defence troopers throughout the base as well as multiple Cavorite beam emplacements on the moons surface, directly over the sites of each underground shield generator - the only way to shut down the shields is to get inside the base and the only way to get inside the base is through the Orbital elevators, which in turn are protected by the Cavorite Gun Emplacements - marked as C.G.E on the map now"

The map shifted and turned as well over several dozen marked dots appeared on the moons surface mapped with a corresponding "C.G.E" in ghostly marked letters.

"The plan we have thusfar relys on the stealth systems Lord Warhead has installed on Stormsword One as well as the new veritech fighters at our disposal - the operation is thus -" Kato began as the map started to shift through the phases of attack.

"Stormsword One drops in via FTL and activates her stealth systems, getting within danger-close range of this orbital elevator"

The map shifted to reveal one of the middle elevators, surrounded at its base by a large concentraction of guns and shields.

"Stormsword One will then drop out of stealth mode and launch the entire Veritech wing which will then force their way into the structure and down the shaft, protected by the retaliatory fire from the C.G.E's as Stormsword One blows up as much as it can as a distraction before reactivating its stealth package - once the Samurai flights have reached the bottom of the Orbital Elevators, they spread through the local turnnel networks to find the nearest location of suitable Cavorite - the nearest shield generators and internal power systems for the C.G.E's and then once this is done, a co-ordinated smash and grab as Stormsword One makes orbital insertion for pickup. - the Shields drop, the C.G.E's go offline and every Samurai with free hands loads up on as much Cavorite as they can steal and returns to the ship, its FTL drives charged - it jumps out of the skies and the Britannians are none the wiser."

Kato turned to the silent masses in the room "I am sorry, I know you all like your intel with a little more intel - and to be facing the enemy on equal terms, but this is all our 'allies' have for us and this is all we can formulate from it."

Lord Shadowscythe stepped forward "I am happy enough with what we have Kato, you may stand down" He said as the younger bridge officer dropped his shoulders ever so slightly and moved away as fast as he could at walking speed, apparently relieved to not be the center of attention any more "Do any of you have any questions?"

The only replies he got from the room where a mixture of faces, some filled with resolve, others nervous, some calculating and confirming details in their own minds, a few even filled with latent fear and some awaiting the coming battle.

"Very well - the operation begins at 0800 Scythian Central Time, that is 11 and a half hours from now, so get your rest and prepare for the mission, and all of you - good luck."

In the corner of the room Lord Shadowscythe watched as Lord Warhead grinned to himself in silence and slipped out of the briefing room door, and Lord Shadowscythe quickly strode out of the room to follow him.

Stormsword One drifted ever closer on her own inertia as the vast Tiara belt of the orbital elevators and their interlinked stations grew ever closer on the viewscreen, Kato himself had been given command of the ship for this operation as he stood defiant on the bridge - the transition to FTL had been non-eventful even with the Immortal ship in tow at the outer edges of the system and the stealth package Lord Warheads engineers had installed had been operating without a hitch. Despite the crudeness of the Immortal technologies build ethos, not one crew member could deny its effectiveness as the ship cruised ever closer to the Britannian station hidden behind a quasi-phasic field that bend light and space around itself into a pocket dimension that not only rendered the ship invisible to every single method of detection known to Scythian-kind - but shunted the ship out of the local dimension of spacetime, ridding the method of classic detection of spotting the "gaps" in space where an absolute nothing would be flagged by regular sensors. It was a pefect, and horrifying system - and one that made Lord Shadowscythe question why it was not installed on every single Immortal ship, with such a technological advantage they could jump in, turn invisible and bombard entire planets into their respective stone ages without reprisal, end entire fleets with overwhelming firepower or simply behead entire command structures from each races leadership or admiralty commands and watch their foes crumble, lost and feeble in the dark.

Lord Warheads reply was almost as predictable as it was horrifying.

"Where would the fun in that be?"

Inside the cockpit of his Samurai veritech fighter Lord Shadowscythe was making the last minute preparations to his controls - each and every one of these new craft had never been used in combat before, and instead of having years of testing and perfection before reaching the field, these prototype craft had been assembled in mere weeks after only a few short months of Scythian research and development. Months! He also could not rid the spectre in the back of his mind that the very underlaying concept of these technological monstrosities where based upon the gifts of the enemy - gifts given for the sole purpose of making the enemy more fun to fight by making them more of a challenge.

This was a train of thought he shoved to one side however as he ran through his final weapon checks - the two arm mounted weapons where in operational order, the right arm quad gatling laser cannon was based directly off an older vehicle design in the form of the Black Widow IFV, simply scaled up to fighter size with a larger power conduit to match the equally larger Matter/Anti-matter annihilation drive, and then further jacked up with an improved focusing lens system and rotary engine for faster and more powerful beam transmission. The left arm missile launcher was another classic Scythian concept - a quad barreled missile launcher in a linear layout rather than rotary - each launcher mechanism contained a self-autoloading short ranged Anti-matter homing missile, a weapon tried and tested and handed down for almost a century and a half - a single molecule of Antimatter held in a magnetic suspension inside a missile casing with limited artificial intelligence, once fired they would home on a target and either collide directly with it, exploding and catalyzing the Antimatter within to the usual, explosive results - or disabling the internal magnetic field and allowing inertia to cause the Antimatter to collide with the internal missile casing, causing the same explosive effect.

The wings, as short and stubbed as they where - had been loaded with extra disposable racks of "fire and forget" Anti-matter missiles with a longer range than the fist mounted counterparts - the missile would fire and then the rack would detonate into a field of flack and chaff particles behind it, relying on the velocities of space combat to fool any counter-missiles launched afterwards. These missiles numbered at a dozen per fighter, and made Lord Shadowscythe feel somewhat better than before about the operations successes.

The last weapon was a turreted laser cannon - an anti-infantry cannon that had been lifted out of Stormswords One's own reserves of small arms for use with the Carnivore dropships or squad mounted weapons and hastily added as a secondary weapon to be utilized in the Samurai's deployed bipedal layout - while the Immortals frowned at first, Lord Warheads reaction was yet again as predictable as before. After all, when you are going to blow something up it helps to have as much "dakka" as possible.

Lord Shadowscythe shunted such thoughts aside once again - he despised the entire situation but had little to no choice but to abide with helping the enemy, for now he had to focus on the here and now and simply hope that history could judge him in a better life once this was over, if the war could ever be called "over".

Between these thoughts Stormsword One was edging ever closer to its target, looking like some form of angry insect as the forty strong slight had been jury-rig attached to the hull, Lord Warhead changing his mind, instead of loading 20 fighters on Stormsword One and 20 on his own ship - it was decided that for maximum "shock and awe" that the entire wing would launch at once from the one ship and be re-distributed later between the two once the goal was complete.

"Attention Samurai flight" Kato announced over the comm package - on the bridge he was doing Lord Shadowscythe proud considering what was being thrust upon him "We are approaching 'Danger Close' Range, deployment in thirty seconds. Gods speed and may the maidens of Scythia bless upon you."

Lord Warhead then cropped up before him, a holographic display screen as part of the secondary comm system.

"You know, one day I really need to ask about this 'Maidens of Scythia' bullcrap you lot keep spouting, they any good in the sack?"

Lord Shadowscythe simply grunted and closed the window before him, his blood rose for a minute before subsiding - along with every other insult he had to live with the enemy insulting one of the oldest, semi-religious belief of the Scythian people and the closest thing to a history and prophesy rolled into one. He simply did not have time for Lord Warheads 'shit' any longer.

"15 seconds to deploy" Kato relayed once more as the combat systems ran to the end of their cycle - each weapon of death active and ready to claim their respective tolls.

The seconds passed by faster than Lord Shadowscythe expected - in what felt like a few short heartbeats later Kato's voice repeated.

In that moment Stormsword One's stealth field detached and every single Britannian sensor grid on that side of the small and rocky moon simply known as "Resolute" went into an immediate state of alert - Radar, Lidar, Biometric and a hundred other forms of sensing equipment burst into alarms as unprepared Britannian ensigns and crews where shaken from their stupors - commands yelled, panic states crossed the command decks of a dozen different rooms as a single Scythian signal emerged out of nowhere in the middile of what was supposed to be protected space, with their war on the other side of the goddamned empire! Within seconds one target split into over fourty - each target larger than a fighter but smaller than a frigate, classifying themselves as some form of oversized bastard corvette. Less than a second later shields flared and floors shook as the Scythian target - a single "Kentaurus" class destroyer, one of the new generation Scythian hunter-killer ships opened fire on the Tiara, raking shields with Anti-matter projectors uselessly before launching short range lasers at more vunerable shipyard targets outside of the shields - racks of material, half assembled but non-crewed ships and the few Britannian EVA personel in the engineer suits and the CAP fighter wing where wiped aside with cruel efficiency before the surface Cavorite guns turned on the target and thrummed into life.

Raw power surged from the underground generators deep beneath the moons surface and upwards into the capacitors of each of the guns before being thrust through the lens system and then through the network of dispersed Cavorite crystals within each cannon - taking each joule of energy and scraping it through the edge of another universe before launching it outwards at the Scythian ship - each neutron of charged matter now enveloped in the shielding effect of raw Cavorite by wrapping itself in the immutable field of universes - a weapon designed to shear the matter of this universe apart by ramming it with brute force into another.

The Kentaurus destroyer, Stormsword One was prepared for this very move as its engines burst into life - launching itself at maximum speed away from its insertion point and then turning on its axis before re-engaging whatever bastardised stealth system it had arrived with and vanishing before a single gun could hit its mark.

This did not however, mean the battle had ended as the forty strong fighter wing blasted their engines past the outer edges of the Tiara stations AA grid and then passed effortlessly through the installations shield grid - blasts from Cavorite emplacements split the group and flak fire slammed ineffectively into shields as Samurai flight shot ever closer to the Orbital elevator as tens of gray Britannian fighters launched to its defense.